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Xefas
2016-11-23, 03:51 AM
Oath of Prosperity

The Oath of Prosperity merges the spiritual with the materialistic, benevolence with self-interest, and temperance with a hunger for power, and through these seeming opposites, a paladin can tap a well of energy few of the faithful ever consider. For an object has no value save what a person believes it to have, and in the places where life pools and prosperity reigns, this belief in intrinsic value - a belief in barter, coinage, and economy - currency is a god like any other; a secular god prayed to with every transaction. Money has its temples, its priesthood. It takes sacrifices with each foolish investment and every market crash. It grants miracles to the pious, who buy low and sell high, transmuting cash from the air and growing fat and happy on the collective understanding that a bag of coins can be worth a house, or a meal, or a person. A Paladin of Prosperity is the sword-arm of the dollar and the denarius, pushing trade routes through dangerous lands, putting bandits and thieves into the ground, and relieving the treasure hoards of monsters too ignorant to be taught the three-part name of god. Buy. Sell. Trade.

Tenets
Profit Is King. I must master my emotions. Anger, hatred, disgust, despair, and stubbornness are petty and mortal before the divine coin. To turn a profit, I would forgive that which makes me angry, I would work with those I hate, I would perform duties that displease me, I would push forward when all seems lost, and I would forsake that which is known and comfortable. A fool refuses to trade with his enemies. A wise man allows his enemies to make him money.

A Healthy Society Benefits All. I will uphold the common good. I will create avenues by which the weak may grow strong. I will seek profit that does not destroy those who will profit me in the future. A fool seizes all the wealth around him and builds for himself a manor while the land and its people starve. The wise man tills the land with education, sows the seeds of economic practices, and reaps the trade and interest. From atop a thousand manors, he builds himself a fortress of splendor.

Cure The Infection. I will oppose those who take from the system without giving back. Brigands, burglars, and cutpurses harm the livelihoods of others. Dragons and other monsters hoard resources that are never put back into circulation. Unscrupulous businessmen make quick money by destroying the potential for long-term prosperity for themselves and for others. Tyrants keep their serfs destitute and ignorant, inhibiting the greater development of civilization and industry. A fool lets an infected hand kill them. A wise man cuts it off.

Pride Is Not Arrogance. I will take pride in my successes. I will enjoy what I have earned. A fine person deserves fine things, and those who hold themselves to a higher standard deserve a higher standard of living. Humility is a coward's shield to protect one's ego, and I will not pretend to be less than I am to preserve the comfort of cowards. A fool burns down his house to warm the beggars outside. A wise man asks them if they need a job.


Oath of Prosperity Spells
Spells marked with an asterisk are detailed in the next post.


Paladin LevelSpells
3rd*Coinmark, *Profitable Smite
5th*Auspicious Appraisal, Zone of Truth
9thSending, *Thiefguard
13thLeomund's Secret Chest, *Money On My Mind
17th*Consecrate Caravan, Teleportation Circle


Channel Divinity
When you take this oath at 3rd level, you gain the following two Channel Divinity options.

Eyes of the Profit. As an action, you briefly close your eyes and fill them with the power of your faith. When you open them again, your Channel Divinity is expended, and your eyes become gently swirling masses of golden and silver light. Your mind becomes clear, allowing you to ignore ongoing effects that compel you to act emotionally, such as the Frightened or Charmed conditions, or a Tasha's Hideous Laughter spell, for 1 minute. You can activate this use of Channel Divinity even if one or more of these conditions would otherwise prevent you from taking such an action.

Turn The Poor. As an action, you present some money or something that appears particularly expensive, and speak the holy name of god. Gold and silver light spill forth from your eyes and mouth, expending your Channel Divinity. Each intelligent creature capable of understanding the concept of money within 30 feet of you, whose net worth of all their possessions and property is less than your own net worth, must make a Wisdom saving throw. If a creature fails it saving throw, it is turned for 1 minute or until it takes damage.

A turned creature must spend its turns trying to move as far away from you as it can, and it can't willingly move to a space within 30 feet of you. It also can't take reactions. For its action, it can use only the Dash action or try to escape from an effect that prevents it from moving. If there's nowhere to move, the creature can use the Dodge action.

Chrimatakinesis
At 7th level, you attain the power to control money with sheer force of will.

As an action, you can exert your will on a 5ft-radius area within 30ft (this increases to 60ft at 18th level). You can pick up and move currency in that area using your Charisma score in place of your Strength score (a standard coin weighs about 1/50th of a pound). As part of a single action, you can float an amount of money you're capable of picking up a total of 30ft. You can also "throw" money you've picked up, up to 30ft, which can move outside of your normal control range. This can be used as an attack (see below). By spending an action on consecutive rounds, you may maintain your hold on a single mass of money, causing it to float in a particular area without falling. If you stop controlling money for even a single round, it falls to the ground.

A few specific things that you can do (this list is not exhaustive):

As an action, you can violently move money from one location within 30ft of you, towards a target within 30ft of that area. This is a ranged attack that uses the higher of your (Dexterity or Charisma) modifier for the attack roll. It deals 1d10 damage, plus the higher of your (Dexterity or Charisma) modifier. Small amounts of money (less than 50 coins or bills) deal piercing damage. Large amounts of coinage deal bludgeoning damage, while large amounts of paper currency deal slashing damage. The Extra Attack class feature allows you to make additional attacks with this use of Chrimatakinesis.

As an action, you can draw money up around you into a whirling defensive cloud that obscures your movements and intercepts attacks. This requires a minimum of 500 coins or bills for a Medium creature, and half that for a Small creature. Until the beginning of your next turn, attacks have disadvantage against you.

You can push money around with enough force to flip levers or operate other devices that do not require fine manual dexterity. To do things with more precision, such as turn a doorhandle, open a chest, or pour a bottle of wine, a GM may require a Charisma check. Failure inflicts damage on the manipulated object as if you had attacked it; rather than pour a bottle, you accidentally crush it, instead of turning a knob, you wrench it from its frame.


Holy Word: Bribe
As an action, you invoke the holy name of god and toss a coin, bill, purse or other small form of currency worth one gold piece or more to a creature within 30ft. As you do, a halo of gold and silver light briefly shines from behind your head. If the target is an intelligent creature with a concept of currency, they must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, they catch the coin (or other form of currency used) and are afflicted with the effects of a Suggestion spell. Like Suggestion, maintaining an instance of holy bribery requires Concentration.

Avatar of Finance
As an action, while there are at least 5000 coins or bills within 60ft of you, you may become the wrath of money incarnate. All currency within 60ft immediately surges towards you, wreathing you in a rapidly churning typhoon of cash. You are lifted up, buffeted by the storm, and it both protects you and augments your attacks. These effects last for 1 minute, after which you must finish a long rest before you may activate this ability again.

You have a flying speed of 60 feet.
All attacks against you have disadvantage.
Each time you make a melee attack, you may unleash a massive, lashing tendril of cash that applies your melee attack to everything in a line 5ft wide and 60ft long.
Each time you make a ranged attack with your Chrimatakinesis ability, you may launch a truly prestigious amount of money into the strike, applying the attack not just to a single target, but to everything in a 10ft radius of your choosing.

Xefas
2016-11-23, 03:52 AM
1st-Level Spells

Coinmark
1st-level divination
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Components: -
Duration: One week

Casting this spell, you etch an invisible marking into a coin or bill of paper currency held in one of your hands. The marking has no physical presence, but shows up plainly under the gaze of a Detect Magic spell. The marking can be destroyed by destroying the coin or bill it is on. Furthermore, you are personally aware of the direction and general distance the marked object is from your position. You can tell if it's on another plane of existence, within a thousand miles, a hundred miles, ten miles, a mile, a hundred yards, a hundred feet, or within ten feet of you. You can only maintain a number of simultaneous Coinmark spells equal to your spellcasting ability modifier (minimum 1). Casting a new Coinmark above your limit causes the oldest marking to disappear.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the duration increases by one week for each slot level above 1st.

Profitable Smite
1st-level evocation
Casting Time: 1 bonus action
Range: Self
Components: V
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute

The first time you hit with a melee weapon attack during this spell's duration, your weapon flashes with brilliant silver light, dealing an extra 2d6 radiant damage to the target. If this attack slays a creature, their body shimmers briefly then disappears, replaced by a pile of coinage worth (2d6 x the creautre's challenge rating) silver pieces.

Although many casters may not care about the particulars, these coins are not created from nothing. Rather they are pulled through space from deserted and long-forgotten ruins, ancient tombs, sunken ships, and unreachable planar abysses; places where the coins would only rot for all time, unused. This may cause the caster to acquire some unique looking currency, although it spends just the same, and none but the odd collector would likely stop to notice.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the amount of extra radiant damage increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 1st.


2nd-Level Spells

Auspicious Appraisal
2nd-level divination
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Components: V, S
Duration: Instantaneous

Focusing on an object you're touching, you cast this spell and suddenly know its value and the quality of its craftsmanship. This does not appraise magical properties (an Identify spell would be required for that), although it would, for example, appraise the value and craftsmanship of the tapestry portion of a magical tapestry, just not the value of its enchantments.

For items of particularly fluctuating value, this spell can also provide information about where the target would be considered most valuable, but only among places or buyers that you've been to or met personally. For example, a rare spice might be of comparativley little value in a land where it clashes with the flavors of the local cuisine, but be prized in a nearby country with a slightly different climate, and therefore different vegetables and proteins. Likewise, an Auspicious Appraisal might clue you in to the fact that, among your regular buyers of objects d'art, one in particular has a special appreciation for dwarven craftsmanship that you didn't know about, and would therefore pay more for an otherwise amateurish dwarven bust.


3rd-Level Spells

Thiefguard
3rd-level abjuration
Casting Time: 5 minutes
Range: Touch
Components: V, S
Duration: 12 hours (until discharged)

With a few minutes of meditation, you suffuse yourself or a touched creature with abjuration magic that protects you (or them) against thievery. The first time during this spell's duration that someone attempts to disarm the target or use Sleight of Hand to steal from them or plant something on their person, the attempt's roll takes a -5 penalty. In addition, regardless of whether the attempt is successful in removing an object or planting an object, a loud discharge of electricity explodes outward and shocks the offender for 5d8 lightning damage. A Fortitude save halves this damage.

After activating once, this spell is discharged and ends.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, it can activate one additional time before it's completely discharged for each slot level above 3rd.


4th-Level Spells

Money On My Mind
4th-level divination
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self
Components: V, S
Duration: 1 minute (Concentration, up to 1 hour; see below)

Casting this spell, you partially synchronize your mind with the great, omnipresent divinity that pervades all civilized worlds; money. You become passively aware of the presence of all coinage and paper currency within 60ft, including the value of each individual coin or bill, with a precision down to the exact point in space. In this way, you can, for example, more easily avoid guards wearing coinpurses, detect an invisible creature with a billfold in their pocket or that is disturbing coinage strewn across the ground, or more quickly pickpocket a person by already knowing exactly where their money is on their person.

A Paladin of Prosperity with this spell active can even target money with their Chrimatakinesis ability that they are otherwise unable to perceive.

After one minute, this spell begins to strain the caster's mind. Unless you begin Concentrating on it, it will end at this point. However, by Concentrating, you can maintain this spell for a full hour.


5th-Level Spells

Consecrate Caravan
5th-level transmutation
Casting Time: 1 hour
Range: Touch (1 mile, see below)
Components: V, S, M
Duration: 12 hours (see below)

This spell has two uses – a cheaper and more expensive version, achieved depending on the material component utilized in the casting. The first version requires that you paint the lead wagon, carriage, or other vehicle of a caravan with scripture glorifying money and its acquisition, using a small volume of alchemically silver-infused paint with a market value of 5,000gp. The words or sacred glyphs used fade shortly after the casting of the spell is concluded, though they appear clearly under a Detect Magic spell. After the duration of the spell lapses, they cease to exist altogether.

A caravan wagon consecrated in this way magically produces a smooth dirt road in a 10ft radius around it, creating a 20ft-wide road, and producing road 10ft ahead of the caravan's movements. The road comes with a haphazard curb on either side that is little more than some decently sized rocks placed next to one another. The road itself is mundane and permanent, although if it goes unmaintained, it will become overgrown over time like any other. Only natural, unworked terrain is converted to road, so the spell will not destroy man-made structures. Soft dirt becomes packed, marshland is dried, sand is transmuted to dirt, slopes are smoothed to allow pack animals easy movement, brambles are cleared, gopher holes are filled, and so on – the path is guranateed to be safe to travel upon. Two exceptions of note are that this spell does not create bridges, which means that fording a river can still be dangerous, and that the spell will not create road over terrain that is too weak to support the vehicle it is attached to, such as a frozen lake or a precarious mountain pass. This can be an early warning system for those that pay attention.

The second version of this spell requires alchemically gold-infused paint with a market value of 15,000gp to be expended as its material component. In this version, the road created is not dirt, but rather a properly stone-paved affair with several layers of packed gravel underneath, a gently curved slope in the center to cast off rain, and uniform brick curbs with small perforations to drain collected rainwater off the road. Not only will this version stand for centuries without maintenance, barring deliberate tampering or unnatural acts of nature, but puts significantly less wear on equipment and animals. Furthermore, this version creates stone bridges over water that is 30ft deep or shallower, with a waist-high stone railing instead of a curb.

A single casting of this spell lasts 12 hours, or until it creates 30 miles of road, whichever comes first. It will also end prematurely if you move beyond one mile from the consecrated caravan.

khadgar567
2016-11-23, 04:43 AM
I am getting warcraft goblin visions right now

JeenLeen
2016-11-23, 04:15 PM
The Avatar power requiring x amount of coin or similar substance being nearby to work is a weakness compared to the other level 20 paladin powers. Thus, I think that should be removed.
(I admit it has some utility in that it could let you easily steal money from your enemies by drawing that to yourself, but at level 20 that much gold is probably not too important and it seems contrary to the oath's anti-theft tenants.)

Also, Turn the Poor seems annoying for having to figure out the net worth of people. Probably okay for the DM to handwave it in most cases, but I can see a DM or player being annoyed when a PC with good gear tries to turn a noble.

I don't have much comment on the rest of it. I like the fluff, although I can see some concerns about looting enemies verses letting it go to rightful heirs (when not just looting monsters/bandits). And it was humorous to me that, while reading it, I kept misreading 'name of god' as 'name of gold', given the context.

King539
2016-11-23, 10:02 PM
Why do Chrimatakinesis and Coinmark use Wisdom? Paladins are based off Charisma, and spells always specify spellcasting ability, rather than any one specific ability.

Xefas
2016-11-24, 11:32 PM
Why do Chrimatakinesis and Coinmark use Wisdom? Paladins are based off Charisma, and spells always specify spellcasting ability, rather than any one specific ability.

Thank you for pointing this out. This was just an error on my part, and I've changed these instances of Wisdom to Charisma, and to spellcasting modifier in the case of Coinmark.


The Avatar power requiring x amount of coin or similar substance being nearby to work is a weakness compared to the other level 20 paladin powers. Thus, I think that should be removed.
(I admit it has some utility in that it could let you easily steal money from your enemies by drawing that to yourself, but at level 20 that much gold is probably not too important and it seems contrary to the oath's anti-theft tenants.)

The ability doesn't really make sense in my head without at least a certain amount of money to utilize. I figure that, at very high levels, it should be fairly trivial to satisfy this requirement. Do you suppose it's a significant enough weakness that the benefits granted should be larger?


Also, Turn the Poor seems annoying for having to figure out the net worth of people. Probably okay for the DM to handwave it in most cases, but I can see a DM or player being annoyed when a PC with good gear tries to turn a noble.

I expect a GM to be able to make a snap call on this pretty easily. D&D occasionally requires a GM to spin whole worlds and monsters and gods out of thin air - perhaps this is me showing too much respect for my fellows - but I have full confidence in a GM experienced and comfortable enough to use internet homebrew to be able to go "Hugh the Paladin is worth X. Nobleman Jeff has 40,000 acres of farmland and a salt mine, which is worth >X." And maybe he pulled that number out of his ass. But the same holds true of everything in the fictional space of a D&D game.


I don't have much comment on the rest of it. I like the fluff, although I can see some concerns about looting enemies verses letting it go to rightful heirs (when not just looting monsters/bandits). And it was humorous to me that, while reading it, I kept misreading 'name of god' as 'name of gold', given the context.

I'm glad that you like the fluff. I spent a good amount of time on it. I think the looting thing is something that may come up to interpretation by individual paladins. Just as a Chaotic Evil Vengeance Paladin and a Lawful Good Vengeance Paladin are going to disagree strongly on what constitutes "Fighting The Greater Evil" and who gets mercy via the tenet "Ordinary foes might win my mercy, but my sworn enemies do not.", what a Prosperity Paladin does with loot is going to depend on their upbringing, their culture, the other facets of their personality, and the context.

These are two things I do like about 5th edition. The default assumptions seem to divorce gold from power - there isn't as big an incentive to scrounge every copper piece off of every dead grandmother because magic items are rare, there's no ye olde magick shoppe, and those coppers can't be converted into Boots of Flying. So ensuring possessions get to the next of kin, or paying restitution to the families of the dead isn't an unpalatable proposition. And, secondly, paladins don't seem to fall the instant they break a tenet - they're allowed to be flawed people attempting to uphold goals they believe to be lofty and greater than themselves. There's room for paladins to argue theology, and for different paladins to interpret tenets differently, without one of them falling and objectively proving one side or the other. Oathbreaking comes from a complete loss of faith in one's cause. I think that's neat.

WoodyDeschain
2016-11-25, 08:48 AM
I really like the fluff of this Oath, the Capitaladin.

Anyway, just pointing out, the defensive part of the Chrimatakinesis is actually worse than taking the Dodge action, except for invisible enemies. I don't know of it is intended.

And maybe, in order to bypass the weakness of needing to be around gold and bills, maybe give them a holy symbol that they can use to store their money, something like a bag of holding only for money and, when they use a ability that uses money, they can summon it from their holy symbol.

Calen
2016-11-25, 04:28 PM
I am getting warcraft goblin visions right now

First thing I thought of was the Ferengi from Star Trek.

Xefas
2016-11-25, 05:40 PM
First thing I thought of was the Ferengi from Star Trek.



Anyway, just pointing out, the defensive part of the Chrimatakinesis is actually worse than taking the Dodge action, except for invisible enemies. I don't know of it is intended.

It wasn't intended. I haven't done much in the way of 5e homebrew before; I'm still getting used to everything. Do you have any suggestions? Would maintaining it (and/or activating it) as a bonus action be worthwhile without being overpowered for the level it's gained?

Anyways, I'm glad that at least the fluff is being enjoyed. Even if I don't have 5e down mechanically yet, I want to tell a good story.